10/14/13 Letter

We had zone conference and it hit me like a ton of bricks! First Prez is going to be an apostle one day so i am so happy to have him as a prez #realtalk #heisthebest #heismyrolemodel! 

They talked about how they served in orphanages in russia and in africa and showed us this pic of these starving children.. and he talked about how if we saw a child like this we would want to feed it and care for it! Well thats how everyone spirits look like that don't have the gosple they are starving souls "looking for the truth but know not where to find it!" It is up to us to bring them to christ!  that impressed my mind so much that like christ we should not look on the out ward appearance of people and look in there heart!  this gospel is for everyone  it brings families closer together, why would i not want to tell people that?  why would i be scared to share that with people just because i cant speak that well?  

I truly know i am meant to be here even though at times it cause i looked around at dinner the other day and  me eyes were truly opened as this one man was so sad eating by himself and then this family didn't even talk together at the other table  but on there phones and then is other family just sat in silence! i just wanted to run up to them all and give them a big hug saying, "Don't worry be happy!" Thats why its hard for people to convert to the gospel cause the only thing the have is there traditions to keep them happy cause of the war they feel like they have to hold on to there religion cause they fought for it.   

So get this ... this week was downer but Sunday night was great and my comp said ok we need to go to a house that is 17 and is green! She said it just came to me when i was praying  that it is over in this area. We contacted more till we got to house that was green and #17! shut up shut up shut up! i could not believe this!  so the door bell didn't work  and they had this sweet dog that was up against this lock gate that had the keys on it so what did Sister Peterson do ... she unlocked the gate... and then i thought the dog was going to not let us in-but he stepped back like saying ok here u go come in! Oh man we prayed so hard they would let us in and well prayers are answered as these old man did let us in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is a professor and he made a chart how marriages are failing and how people are not happy anymore!  Well for some reason my comp could not understand him so we left him with some pamphlets and we are coming back! His house connects with his sons house who is the head of the hospital here! We have been praying to find a new branch president so  this has to be a sign! 

Everything this week felt like it happened a month ago!  i have so very very intresting stories this week!  so get ready an hold on tight! 

We were in čakovec Wednesday when me and my companion got lost in a whole other town. We only saw this guy who was walking the same way as us so i though to talk to him.  We talked about the church and then gave him a Book of Mormon!  The next day he was like... "There is somthing different about y'all and can we meet?" He saw the light of Christ....so Thursday he drove down to varaždin for a lesson but..... he really drove down 15 min to take me and my comp out for drinks ahhahah??? He was like what you are missionaries? Um hello why would i give u a Book of Mormon and talk about the gospel if i was not??? Well poor guy who was like 35 felt a little embarassed hahah so funny.

Thats all i have time for this week but love u all.

Love, 

sestra peterson 

10/7/13 letter

“The Church is designed to nourish the imperfect, the struggling, and the exhausted.”

No one is perfect..  the only thing that is perfect is this church and because its run by  our perfect father in heaven who has  a perfect plan for us and is carried out by our  perfect brother, our perfect savior .. his perfect son Jesus Christ.   the gospel  is for the sinner trying to become saints trying to  work better and harder to over come the challenges we face in life today. As we carry out our life  journey remember that hold to the what u know and that satin will try everything to put doubt in our head to second guess our self, our happiness. i love what we have just hear for man who have faced doubts many times in there lives..

"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."  wow can u get any more powerful than that! I was reading a talk cause time for trouble  by Holland and he said this ", I wish at the beginning to make a distinction author F. Scott Fitzgerald  once made—that “trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement—discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint” We all have troubles, but the “germ” of discouragement, to use Fitzgerald’s word, is not in the trouble, it is in us—or to be more precise, I believe it is in Satan, the prince of darkness, the father of lies. And he wants us to have it in us. It’s frequently a small germ, but it will work and it will grow and it will spread. In fact it can become almost a habit, a way of living and thinking, and there the greatest damage is done. Then it takes an increasingly severe toll on our spirit, for it erodes the deepest religious commitments we can make—those of faith, and hope, and charity. We turn inward and look downward, and these greatest of Christlike virtues are damaged or at the very least impaired. We become unhappy and soon make others unhappy, and before long Lucifer is happy.You can change anything you want to change and you can do it very fast. That’s another Satanic deception that it takes years and years to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it.
 i love that because as a missionary  i feel like i have counted on the atonement more than ever and i get down on my knees saying forgive me... for not talking to that person cause what if there whole salvation is lost because i had a feeling to talked to them but i was to scared.. its a big weight on your shoulder. But with what we just heard in conference gives everyone hope.

He works through us–His imperfect children–and imperfect people make mistakes.” and that “Your faith strengthens my faith. Your devotion makes me more devoted.” 

Let me tell u about my week and how i spent  conference... well first of all we went to this town out side of varaždin cause we had a referral over lds ord for Canada saying this person has family her so we went to see them and they were so interested! the funny thing is that we saw the girl riding her bike in the center and i said hi.. then we when to lunch  and then well surprise the referral was the girl i just said i to in center! she said she noticed us cause we looked different and happy unlike other people walking. well we had a great lesson and the mom was like well i will get baptized... haha well it would be the first member cause there is not a church out there. but the mom had so many great question and  we are going to see them this week.... the have 6 kids... son is marries and is like 20.. it screams Mormon all over the place hahaha but then after that the kids said that people told them in there community it was a sin when its not .. if u were not baptized  the way chirst by immersion fully in the water like it talked in about in Matt 3 "straightway out of the water:" . but they still will come to church and everything. im kind of said but at the same time i am not giving up because those kids have something different about them. where do u find kids 11 and 14 who sit through sat day and Sunday general conference and not move a muscle or fall asleep like like half the teens in America-when all they have to do is walk down stairs in there house? 

Saturday here was live for us at 6 at night and we made sugar cookie, which our friend matina helped make and she almost died cause she saw all the sugar hahaha  but everyone loved them! so we had Saturday night  was the sat morning un america and only 2 member and the 2 kids came to that, then sunday we watched in church the sat night and then made lunch for everyone so there were 15 people.  dn chilli was way to hot for them cause they can not handel hot stuff here so i put sugar and sour cream and this sweet ketchup stuff to make it hot  ... i just but in everthing that was sweet and  prayed really hard they would love it and they loved it... i was so funny!  then it was 3 members at 6 watching the American 10 session. and then noone watches the end session here cause is at 10 at night!

Love yall lots and hope this week is great for everyone
sestra peterson 

09/30/13 letter

Hello Family and Friends!

First off Heather- WOW!!!!!!! THE WEDDING LOOKED AMAZING! YOU LOOKED SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!!! WELL BECAUSE I WAS NOT THERE THE LORD BLESED ME WITH 2 BABPTSIM dates THIS WEEK! 

Peter and his sister want to get baptized! we had a lesson with them on tuseday about prayer and it was awesome! everyone prayes to Mary here so we told them that we talk about her in church  as the mother of Jesus, but we dont worship her cause she did not pay the biggest price and pay for our sins.  And we taked about how in the bible the comandment is not to worship idels and thats also why we dont pray to a statue of her.  Next thing u know we were all kneeling and the kid were a littlle nervous then peter said "wait" we start off by saying  our "Heavenly father" cause he is the father of everthing,  then we thank him, then we ask for help, and then we say "in the name of jesus christ amen" cause he is our savior".. then after that he said the most beautiful prayer as a smile lit up his face!  then is sister wanted to try and man, they were all so happy after. Peter was giving  his sister a hi 5 cause he was like that was so good and so did the member, vanja, who was also there helping out!  PS vanja has not smoked in 4 days through the stop smoking program!  poor thing she is so sick of grapfruit ahha!  but anyways so that night we invited them to pray on their own about if this church was true and andrijana said when she was sleeping she had a dream that she was talking with us on the street! she was like i am pretty sure that was my answer! man i got the chills when she said that becuase god is there to help us and when we pray he will answer our desires!  Sunday even though it was raning (and had been all week)we had 4 invesigators at church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  well i am still with my companion and staying here for another 6 weeks! im so happy cause i love it so much here in varaždin!  

Get this... i saw  les misrables in Croatin cause  for 5 dallars here cause our friend aka our potential investigator was in the musical and she really wanted us to support her so we got to see it! it was so good and the the voices were awesome!  On friday we had an talent show aktivnots with people playing the accordin and a special croatian insterment!  it was so good!  

sad day cause elder bates who has the best croatian in the whole mission and taught us croatian is going home...  so i still hope i can learn this language! so we are going to zagreb to say good bye to him  well thats  all i have time for! 

love yall lots! 

sestra peterson